


Muscle Memory

by sophiacrutchfeild



Series: Adrinette Month 2017 [9]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, but there is an allusion to mutiltion, it's subtle i think, this actually does end on a fluffy note, this..
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 19:51:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9622970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophiacrutchfeild/pseuds/sophiacrutchfeild
Summary: When the cat has been missing for far too long, and patrol feels far too lonely...





	

She lands on the roof, after flipping in midair, and holds her fist out for the pound that leaves her hanging. Or she’ll see some amazing view, and call Chat over to see, and be greeted with silence. Or she’ll start falling and almost forget that she’s got to be the one to catch herself, throwing the yo-yo out just in time.

It stings. No, actually, it more than stings, it hurts that she keeps doing the same things she’s always done without someone to do it with her. Patrols used to be something that, while sleep-depriving, she generally looked forward to. Now they’re full of reminders of what she’s lost.

He never even said goodbye. He just… didn’t show up one day, to an akuma fight. She waited for him at the Eiffel that night, waiting to ream him out and swear that he better pray he had a good excuse… but he didn’t show then, either. He just sorta disappeared. He hasn’t shown for months, and she’s starting to accept that he’s probably never coming back.

Still, her reflexes all say he’s there. Even if she knows he’s not, it’s… hard. Weird. Even when she’s not sad- and really, she’s not always so sad anymore, it’s been so long- she still feels like something’s wrong, off beat. Her memories dictate that there will be someone beside her, and then there isn’t. It throws her off every time, and leaves her reeling, feeling sick.

She shivers in the cold, looking down at the street, and wonders where he went. Why did he leave in the first place? Why just vanish like that? She knows, knows that he can’t be dead. He’s Chat, he’s the most lively person she’s ever met, and someone like that doesn’t just… die.

(The logical part of her knows that isn’t how it works, but who cares? Chat can’t be dead, he just can’t and that’s all there is to it.)

So where is he? Why isn’t he here? Where did he go off to?

She sighs, and decides to swing by the Agreste house… if one can call it a house.

Adrien had been acting more and more reclusive, distrustful, as of the last few months, since he left for the weekend and, by all accounts, got kidnapped for a bit, coming back with new gloves. She’d tried to be there for him, but he seemed to confident that everything would be fine as soon as he got… something… back from the kidnappers, and it was around the same time Chat vanished, so she figured that getting him cookies and giving a stammered promise to be there if he needed to talk would suffice.

It didn’t.

Things got worse and worse, and he seemed to fold in on himself more and more as time passed, the opposite of a healing process. It was like he was losing hope… until the day she decided enough was enough, and came by as Ladybug to tell him how worried everyone was, and they began talking…

(So far, he’s the only person she’s talked to about how much she misses Chat. They’ve been talking quite a bit about that.)

She taps at his window gently, and he opens it, with that sad, but more hopeful than in a while, smile playing at his lips. “Hey… what’s up?”

“Just… patrol, you know…” she sighs. “I mean, it used to be fun.”

“But not anymore.”

“No, not anymore. I just… I think he could be… gone. Permanently.”

He sighs, and looks down. “I’m sorry… I… I should have said this a long time ago, I think, even if you told me you didn’t want…”

She looks at him. “What is it?”

“If you could know who he was, right now, would you take that chance?”

She closes her eyes, thinking. “I… I would. Yes. I want to know what happened to him.”

In a quick motion, he pulls his glove off, revealing scar tissue over where his right pointer finger should be. “I thought I’d get it back… every plan has fallen through, but…”

She stares for a moment, backing up.

Then she extends her hand, without warning, and his crashes into hers by reflex. You can’t fake that…

It’s the muscle memory.


End file.
